After the landslide victory in the 2024 assembly election, Devendra Fadnavis, taking oath as the three-time chief minister, decided to pay back by making his administration more pro-people. He announced a 100-day program to instill a sincere, speedy, and people-centric work culture in the ruling Mahayyuti government in Maharashtra to earn citizens’ trust and confidence.
The scorecard of this 100-day performance was released on May 1 (Maharashtra Day), with the Women and Child Development Department emerging as the best department by scoring 80 percent marks. This implies that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has adopted a corporate-like performance evaluation system to make the departments more competitive and sincere in achieving the performance indices through their day-to-day work.
Devendra Fadnavis was unanimously elected as the Chief Minister after leading the party to a historic victory of 132 seats in the 2024 assembly elections, to take oath as the twenty-first Chief Minister of Maharashtra on December 5, 2024. Within a few days, after expanding the cabinet and allocating portfolios, he announced his government’s 100-day action program, which involved setting specific objectives for each department to meet in 100 days. At the same time, a 7-point action program was drawn up for each department to improve governance and citizens’ ease of living. While the performances of all 48 departments were put under scrutiny, CM Fadnavis addressed key officials such as the municipal commissioners, divisional commissioners, district collectors, superintendents of police, police commissioners, and zilla parishad heads to hold review meetings of the departments under these key government officials and provide instructions/suggestions, wherever necessary, for making positive changes.
How Chief Minister’s work made differences on the ground
CM Fadnavis devised the following 7-point action plan for each of the government departments, based on basic observations, so they can serve people better and create an improved perception:
- Regularly updating the department’s website, ensuring cybersecurity of the website, and making information requested under the Right to Information Act available on the website.
- Keeping the government offices clean by clearing the clutter of unnecessary and unused documents and junk/unclaimed vehicles.
- Providing drinking water in government offices. Ensuring that toilets remain clean.
- Implementing two key requirements at the local level within the department – reducing pending work to zero and putting up information boards indicating when officers will be available for meetings.
- Making efforts to solve local issues at the taluka and district levels. Effectively implementing activities like Lokshahi Din to avoid congestion in the ministry.
- Entrepreneurs should not face unnecessary hurdles. If required, Divisional Commissioners and District Collectors should interact with entrepreneurs and officers of the concerned departments to ensure ‘ease of doing business.’
- Providing proper amenities in schools, health centers, municipalities, etc., and maintaining them. The District Guardian Secretary should ensure this to ensure comfort and satisfaction to the citizens visiting them.
100-day report card: The Women and Child Welfare Department was declared the best performer
- Under the 100-day action program, the departments were evaluated by the Quality Council of India based on several criteria, such as the standard of websites, basic facilities in the offices, grievance redressal systems, ease of processes, etc. The best performers in different categories are as follows:
- The Women and Child Development Department was named the best performer, scoring 80 out of 100.
- The Chandrapura District Collectorate’s office scored 84.29% to be named the best in its category.
- The Ulhasnagar Municipal Commissioner’s office scored 86.29% to be named the best in its category.
- Thane Zilla Parishad achieved 92% to be declared the best Zilla Parishad.
- The Mira-Bhayander Police Commissioner’s department came first in its category by scoring 84.57%.
While announcing this performance scorecard, the Chief Minister also clarified that this 100-day program is not meant for mere competition but to evaluate and improve the accountability, transparency, and efficient administration in each department for better governance to the public and to create examples for others to follow.
In the last 100 days, out of the 902 strategic objectives set for these departments, 706 have been achieved, while the departments have been ordered to continue working on the remaining 196 objectives until they are completed. Of the total 48 departments, 12 achieved 100%, while 18 achieved more than 80% of their given objectives. The results of the departments that performed remarkably are as follows:
Best Ministry Department
Women and Child Development (80%), Public Works Department (77.94%), Agriculture (66.54%), Rural Development (63.58%), Transport and Ports (62.26%)
Best Zilla Parishad Chief Executive Officer
Thane (92%), Nagpur (75.83%), Nashik (74.73%), Pune (74.67%), Washim (72.00%)
Best Municipal Commissioner
Ulhasnagar (65.21%), Pimpri-Chinchwad (65.13%), Panvel (64.73%), Navi Mumbai (64.57%)
Best Police Commissioner
Mira Bhayandar (68.49%), Thane (65.49%), Mumbai Railways (63.45%)
Best Divisional Commissioner
Konkan (75.43%), Nashik (62.21%), Nagpur (62.19%)
Best Police Area Inspector General/Deputy Inspector General
Konkan (78.68%), Nanded (69.87%)
Best Commissioner/Director
Director, Technical Education (77.13%), Commissioner, Jamabandi (72.66%), Tribal Development (72.49%), State Rural Livelihood Upliftment Mission (70.28%), Medical Education (68.53%)
Best District Collector
Chandrapura (68.29%), Kolhapur (62.45%), Jalgaon (60.65%), Akola (60.58%), Nanded (56.66%)
Best Superintendent of Police
Palghar (70.21%), Jalgaon (60.00%), Nagpur Rural (60.00%), Gondia (56.49%), Solapur Rural (56.00%)
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is known for being tough about maintaining the basic standards of government departments and their work culture to improve people’s experience, and he is at it again. His 100-day program, taken immediately after the oath-taking ceremony, testified to his resolve to implement performance-based evaluation of the government departments, which is bound to provide better governance to the citizens and push the boundaries for Maharashtra.
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